Women's Representation on Israeli TV News Declined in September

The proportion of women appearing on Israeli television news programs decreased in September compared to August, according to a new report from the 5050 Project, an initiative by the Journalists' Association of Israel and The Seventh Eye. In August, women constituted 24.7% of the visual presence on screen, a figure that dropped to 22.5% in September. Kan 11 continued to provide the most representation for women, while Channel 14 remained at the bottom, despite being the only channel to see a slight increase in female representation.

The analysis, conducted by The Seventh Eye's "Subtext" system using AI and human review, examined 632 broadcasts from 35 programs across five channels (Kan 11, Channel 12, Channel 13, Channel 14, and i24NEWS) between 5 PM and 11 PM from September 1st to 30th, 2026. Out of 84,870 facial samples collected, 65,795 were identified as male and only 19,075 as female, meaning for every identified woman, more than three men were identified.

Kan 11 led with 32.9% female representation, down from 34.6% in August. Channel 13 followed with 24.3%, a decrease from 28.9%. i24NEWS remained unchanged at 21.7%, moving to third place as Channel 12 saw a significant drop from 24.9% to 19.8%, placing it fourth. Channel 14, consistently at the bottom, saw a minor rise from 12.8% to 13.1%.

Panel discussions showed a wider gender gap, with women making up only 17.7% of visual presence in panel segments, down from 19.4% in the previous measurement. Kan 11 led panel representation at 35.8%, followed by Channel 13 at 25.7%. Channel 12 had 16.9% and Channel 14 only 9.6% in panels.

Overall visual presence in main news broadcasts was 23.1% women, down from 26.2% in August. Kan 11 led at 24.6%, followed by i24NEWS (23.7%) and Channel 13 (23.4%). Channel 12 experienced a sharp decline to 21.7% from 30.8%, while Channel 14 saw a slight decrease to 20.3% from 20.5%.

Specific programs also showed low female representation. "Riklin and Co." on Channel 14 had 9.6% women, followed by "Shva" on Channel 14 (9.9%) and "HaPatriotim" (10.7%). Programs like "Zoreh Behirah" on Channel 13 (13.1%) and Channel 12's "Hashish Im" (16.7%) and "Shva Im" (16.8%) also featured low percentages. In 23 out of 35 programs, women comprised less than a quarter of the visual presence.

The program "Haim VeMeirav" on Channel 12 reported the highest percentage at 50.9%, though based on a small sample size. Among programs with at least 500 samples, "Glick VeTamar BaShishi" on Kan 11 led with 47.2% women, followed by Kan 11's Saturday news edition (45.3%) and "Kan BaShish" (40.3%). The report measures visual presence, not speaking time, and is conducted monthly, with annual summaries published.